THE axe has finally fallen on Burnley General Hospital's A&E department in what campaigners have called a "dark day" for the town.

Bosses yesterday voted to slash services so the most serious A&E emergencies go to Royal Blackburn Hospital instead of Burnley General.

This will mean 13 per cent of all people who at the moment would go to Burnley will be sent to Blackburn, more than 4,000 people.

The A&E department will become an "urgent care centre for minor injuries and illnesses".

Angry residents blasted bosses at the decision meeting and warned the new hospital was too far from homes in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

One of the panel members admitted the plan was a "trade off" between better services and worse transport access for patients.

But health chiefs said the plans were safe and had to go through to improve care and save cash. No change was not an option, they said.

However, Burnley General was chosen over Blackburn to be the only hospital in East Lancashire to keep key women's and children's services.

This will see thousands of Blackburn babies born in Burnley each year. It was the only difference put forward between two consultation options.

Only Burnley will have a consultant-led maternity service and a neonatal intensive care unit for sick babies. So babies likely to need an incubator will have to be born in Burnley.

The majority of those who responded to the four-month consultation said neither was any good and services should stay as they are.

Burnley MP Kitty Ussher, a long-standing opponent of the plans, immediately pledged to fight the decision.

Mrs Ussher said: "I am still extremely concerned. The main worry that has not been addressed is the effect of additional journey times for the most acute cases to Blackburn."

The MP had gone with campaigners to London to meet health secretary Patricia Hewitt who said the decision could be "called in" for her to look at.

Mrs Ussher said: "The only way to make sure this does not go through is for this to be referred to national Government by Lancashire County Council."

Liberal Democrat member of Burnley Borough Council Darren Reynolds was among those who passionately took the floor before the meeting.

He told members of the decision panel at Clayton Park Conference and Learning Centre, Clayton-le-Moors: "Do you really believe that those people who chose one of the options actually want to see the closure of accident and emergency because I can tell you now - they don't."

After the decision he said: "This is a dark day for Burnley."

One member of the public said a document on the plans sent to virtually every home in East Lancashire was "unintelligible". Just 769 people filled out a reply form to give their view on the plans.

Registered nurse Pat Cocker said: "If an elderly person is sick in the middle of the night and they go to Blackburn and are told they are fit to go home how are they going to get home?"

And union activist Jack Denson lambasted the mortgage-style deal to build the new Blackburn Hospital with private cash.

He said: "You have to fill it to pay the rent on a private hospital. It is just about money and nothing else and you will do anything to get your way."

Another said he would not be alive had he not been rushed to the nearby Burnley General after a 1994 heart attack.

Hospital bosses yesterday said contact had been made with more than 7,800 people during the consultation.

Yet of those only 1,387 returned the consultation forms - a return of about one in 171 people.

And of those who responded, 36.6 per cent said they wanted neither option while 28.4 per cent backed the women's services at Burnley (model A) and 34.9 per cent said these should be at Blackburn (model B).

Under both options Burnley General will take on most pre-planned operations from Blackburn.

David Peat, chief executive of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT and a member of the committee, said 20,000 patients out of 650,000 will be affected by the changes.

He said: "No matter which option we choose, for the vast majority nothing will change."

Dr Ellis Friedman, one of the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT representatives, said the changes had to go through.

He said: "If we don't do something then there are grave dangers in terms of the ability to sustain high quality services in East Lancashire."

He said finances was "part of the urgency" to make decision but the "key driver" was to improve the quality of care.

He said: "This is not a series of changes which has been thought up and push through by faceless bureaucrats, by the management, this is a joint series of decisions which has the support of clinicians."

But Dr Friedman admitted there had to be a "trade off" between people having to travel further for treatment and better services.